Sunday, April 14, 2013

She's finally here! Lucy Caroline Peper was born on Saturday, March 30th at 3:56 am. The circumstances under which she was born were a little less than ideal, but the important part is that she's here and healthy and oh-so-cute!
The "story of her birth" is a pretty long one, but I figure I should probably write it down somewhere...
For those of you who have already heard it, feel free to skip ahead :)

We had planned on being at the hospital at 6:30, Friday morning, so I had set my alarm for 5:30 so I would have time to get all ready to go. I had gotten around 3 hours of sleep the night before, however, (I guess thinking about how my life was going to change the next day was a little much for me), and so had apparently slept through the hospital calling me to tell me they were full, and that I had to wait to go in. At about 10:30, they finally called back and said that I could come on in. So we all headed to the hospital. My Mom dropped TJ and I off, I said goodbye to Steven and gave him a big hug and kiss (it was a little bittersweet...) and we headed up to labor and delivery at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.
We got settled in our room, met our nurse, and they started me on pitocin. After about 2 hours, they brought in a Dr and she broke my water. I was hoping that would speed things up a bit, but it didn't. My contractions continued to get worse. I tried walking around, sitting on a birthing ball, and a few other things to cope with the pain. Finally, when I had been laboring for about 7 hours and the nurse told me I was still at about a 3.5, I decided it was time for an epidural. I really was not excited about it.
The anesthesiologist came in, started my epidural (I thought the process was so painful and did not like it AT ALL), and pretty soon things started to feel a little better. Even though I couldn't feel the contractions, it still wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, however, because my legs felt like they were on pins and needles the whole time, even though I couldn't even move them. So even though I couldn't feel contractions, I still wasn't comfortable.
For some reason, Lucy didn't like me laying on my left side. Every time I did, she became less active and her heart rate dropped a bit. Because of this, I spent most of my time on my right side. Because of that, my epidural started to ware off on my left side. After being able to feel contractions (which were now about 2-3 mins apart) for a while, I decided it was time to do something about it. I switched over to my left side and pressed the button to get another dose of my epidural and waited for it to kick in. After about 20 mins, it still hadn't made much of a difference, so our nurse called the anesthesiologist. He came and gave me an extra dose manually, and after a little while, it finally started to kick in. At that point, I thought I should probably switch back over to my right side because Lucy's activity had gone down. When I moved to my other side, however, I all of a sudden starting feeling this sharp pain on the left side of my uterus. That was when all the craziness started.
A ton happened in the next 2 hours, but I'm even a little fuzzy on some of it, so I'm gonna try and just give the highlights. The pain in my side kept getting worse and worse, until finally the nurse called my Doctor. He came up and after watching through a couple contractions (when the pain would get even worse) said he was afraid I had a placental abruption and so we needed to get the baby out quickly. So I started pushing (which was a lot harder, I thought, with an epidural). The Dr Crouch kept saying that she wasn't dropping, even enough to use forceps. He said I could keep trying, but he thought he needed to do a c-section. I, at this point, started freaking out. The doctors and nurses weren't really helping either since they kept talking about how the anesthesiologist was in another c-section and there weren't any extra nurses to come help, and other things that were just freaking me out more. After I had been pushing for about 45 mins, Lucy's heart rate starting dropping, and so Dr Crouch said we had to do the c-section. I was bawling, in tons of pain, and so freaked out. I couldn't stop shaking.
When we got to the operating room, the stressfulness continued as the anesthesiologist yelled at the nurses, the room wasn't all the way ready for us, and they kept saying things like, "Where are the tubes? Did you lose the tubes again?!" I was basically in hysterics. TJ remembers more at this point than I do, but I just remember crying uncontrollably, being in so much pain, feeling so weird that I couldn't feel my legs, seeing Lucy being taken out of me, feeling them pull at my insides, and then being given tons more drugs to try and knock me out. I don't remember almost anything after that (except still feeling panicked), but TJ said I was still in and out, saying things about being in so much pain still. The next thing I really remember is waking up in my room, asking about Lucy.

So that's the story! Sorry it was such a long one! The really important part is that Lucy was born a healthy 8 lb 10 oz baby, and I ended up being fine too. As I'm finally finishing up this post, she's 2 weeks and a day old, and getting cuter every day. She's such a good baby, hardly ever cries, and even sometimes lets me sleep for like 5 hrs straight at night. We all love her so, so much - especially Steven! He wants to hug and cuddle with her all the time, and is getting better at being soft :) I think he's a little sad she can't play with him or talk to him, but he still shares his cars with her whenever he gets the chance. I'm so glad she's part of our family, and I'm so excited to see her grow and get to be part of all those awesome baby milestones all over again. :)

I also have to talk about Steven turning 3!! It happened the day after Lucy was born, so we had to celebrate in the hospital, which I felt a little bad about. Hopefully they won't mind having birthdays a day apart... We took Steven in for his 3 yr check-up last week, and he did great! He's 34.6 lbs (79th %tile) and 38.3 ins tall (72nd %tile). He passed his eye exam, showing he knew a lot of his shapes, too! I am so amazed at how much he's learning every day, and love all the little phrases he uses. He's such a loving big brother, and such a tender little guy. We just love him so, so much!!